Helen Hauck on humanizing B2B with employee advocacy

Helen Hauck on employee advocacy, personal branding, and humanizing B2B.

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Episode summary

What’s the value of your employees amplifying your brand’s message and building their own presence?

What are the challenges that come with taking over a brand’s social and running an employee advocacy program?

These questions and more answered this week on Behind the Post with Helen Hauck, Global Social Media Engagement Manager at IFS. She joins the show to share her insights, challenges, and lessons learned from her 1st-year full-time in social.

Helen and host, Olivia Messina talk about the importance of humanizing B2B brands and the different tactics she’s used on the IFS corporate channels. As an employee advocacy leader, she reveals the challenges she faced when gaining adoption within her organization. With an incredible personal brand on LinkedIn, Helen wraps up the show with her best tips for authentically building a personal brand.

Hot topics:

The biggest barriers Helen faced transitioning from Manufacturing Marketing Manager to Global Social Media Engagement Manager
Leveraging employee advocacy to increase your engagement and humanize B2B brands
How to utilize “original content” to authentically build a personal brand

Meet Helen

As Global Social Media Engagement Manager, Helen is responsible for leading integrated digital and social programs that raise awareness of the IFS brand and amplify our customer’s success. Prior to joining IFS in 2019, Helen worked for Siemens Digital Industries Software in their UK marketing division and before that at Preactor, leading their digital marketing team.

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Unleash your inner artist

Behind the Post is a podcast by Social Media Managers, for Social Media Managers. Host Olivia Messina and her guests talk about the real challenges SMMs face while talking through the creative processes they need to create engaging content every day.

In each episode, SMMs talk through how they stay creative and interesting across their various social channels. The conversations are built to work through fresh ideas and captivating ways to keep your audience engaged and your leads funneling in.

One thing’s for sure, you’ll leave every episode with the tools and inspiration you need to nail your next social campaign!

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Frequently Asked Questions

What are the key benefits of implementing an employee advocacy program in a B2B context?

Employee advocacy significantly enhances a B2B brand's reach and credibility by leveraging employees' trusted networks. It humanizes the brand, increases social media engagement, drives website traffic, and generates higher-quality leads, ultimately fostering greater brand loyalty and perception within the industry.

How can B2B organizations successfully encourage employee participation in advocacy initiatives?

Gaining adoption for employee advocacy in B2B requires strategic planning. Key steps include securing leadership buy-in, providing easy-to-use content and tools, offering clear guidelines, demonstrating the personal branding benefits for employees, and recognizing their contributions to foster a culture of shared success and engagement.

What strategies can B2B brands employ to effectively humanize their corporate social media channels?

To humanize B2B social channels, focus on authentic content that showcases the people behind the brand. This includes sharing employee stories, highlighting company culture, utilizing 'original content' from team members, engaging in genuine conversations, and presenting industry insights with a personal touch rather than just product promotion.

Why is cultivating a strong personal brand crucial for B2B professionals, and how does it impact their company?

For B2B professionals, a strong personal brand builds individual credibility, establishes thought leadership, and expands professional networks. When employees authentically build their personal brands, they become powerful advocates, amplifying company messages, attracting talent, and opening new business opportunities by leveraging trust within their industry.

How does employee advocacy directly impact B2B social media engagement and lead generation?

Employee advocacy dramatically boosts B2B social media engagement as content shared by individuals typically sees higher organic reach and interaction than corporate posts. This expanded reach exposes the brand to new, relevant audiences, drives more qualified traffic to company resources, and cultivates trust, leading to an increase in high-intent lead generation.